“Nom-nom-nom-nom-nom-nom-nom!”
Art:Itzquinth, Firstborn of Gishath
by Lars Grant-West
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Itzquinth is not only the child of one of the biggest and baddest Dinos in magic but Itzquinth is pretty strong themself! Being able to ETB and pay 2 and take out key commanders or creatures is a nice piece of support for a Gruul color identity that does not have a ton of creature removal. We are a dinosaur deck through and through casting the biggest dinos as early as we can, but we also have a bunch of ramp and support creatures to help us to re-ETB Itzquinth! This deck is an absolute blast and I am really excited to share it with you all, without further adieu let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Itzquinth, Firstborn of Gishath Dinosaurs!
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Why Itzquinth, Firstborn of Gishath?
Itzquinth is a ping machine, and not just one damage! Being able to re-ETB Itzquinth multiple times is a key part of the deck that we can take full advantage of. Being able to damage kill key creatures/commanders for our opponents is an invaluable ability. While we almost never attack with Itzquinth we get a ton of value out of their ability. Being able to bounce Itzquinth to our hand and a cheap cost means recasting / re-ETB’ing is quite easy to do. Even Itzquinth is hasty we rarely attack with him or play him on turn 2, typically opting to wait until at least turn 4 to get the ETB trigger.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! As well as highlighting some of my favorite cards in the deck!
Creatures:
We start our creature package out with some mana dorks/ramp in the form of Sakura-Tribe Elder
, Elvish Mystic
and Llanowar Elves
. Knight of the Stampede
isn’t directly ramping but is a great way to reduce nearly all of the creatures in our deck by a decent amount. Speaking of big discounts Goblin Anarchomancer
reduces every card in our deck by at least 1! Since we want to re-ETB Itzquinth, Firstborn of Gishath quite often we can use cards like Invasive Species
, Horned Kavu
and Ambush Krotiq
which are great ways to get our commander back and take down an opponents creature/commander with big damage. We are a dinosaur deck so let’s talk about the best dinosaurs, my top two in the deck are Ancient Brontodon
and Annoyed Altisaur
which we can ramp into pretty early and they are hard to beat in combat. Panicked Altisaur
is one of the few dinosaurs with reach, which helps to address a pretty big weakness of ours as well as being able to stay back and before our turn comes back around deal some damage to everyone. Seismic Monstrosaur
is not only a big creature with trample but in the late-game, we can easily start sacrificing lands for some cards.
Instants:
Big Score
and Unexpected Windfall
are the premier draw spells in our deck and can help us get some extra mana, perfect for activating Itzquinth’s ability. While we don’t have a ton of recursion we do have Reclaim
which is perfect after one of our draw spells. Since almost all of our creatures are on the big side we can get a lot of value out of Sulfurous Blast
which can be a death sentence for token / aggressive strategies. Whether our creature is unblockable or just a trample creature, Aspect of Hydra
is a great way to deal a death blow to our opponents!
Sorceries:
Holy Ramp! We have an absolute ton of ramp in the spell package like Cultivate
, Kodama's Reach
, and Skyshroud Claim
which are all great ways for us to start running some of our bigger and better dinosaurs out there. Explore
is the perfect card for our deck since we get an extra land and a card! Broken Bond
is very similar but gives us a cheap piece of artifact/enchantment removal. Commune with Dinosaurs
is a great way to filter through our deck and find the perfect creature. Atraxa's Fall
may be sorcery speed, but it gets its value from being able to hit a wide range of things, and for our benefit a creature with flying.
Artifacts:
We also have some extra ramp in our artifacts like Moss Diamond
and Fire Diamond
as well as Arcane Signet
and Gruul Signet
. Not too much to say about these mana rocks they are all cheap and easy to get down and help us ramp a decent amount as well. Spare Supplies
is a great way to get 2 extra cards and is good at every stage of the game. Wedding Invitation
is a Pauper EDH favorite here at TNT and for good reason, we get a one-turn unblockable creature and a card for only 2 mana!
Enchantments:
We have some mana ramp in our enchantment package with strong enchantments that can come down early like Fertile Ground
, Wild Growth
, and Utopia Sprawl
. Goblin War Drums
is a great way to make our big creatures that much harder to block since they will all have menace. Spider Umbra
is a cheap one-mana enchantment that provides a nice buff and helps with one of our biggest weaknesses which is flying creatures. Snake Umbra
is mostly used for extra card drawing which is something we are pretty much always looking for.
Land Base:
Our land base is pretty simple and a typical TNT land base, but we do have a few inclusions that are for specific cards. Since we run Skyshroud Claim we want to be able to get the most value out of it so we have included Highland Forest
and Wooded Ridgeline
as viable duals to grab with it. We also have a ton of card draw, which is effective especially in the late game when we have an abundance of mana. Some of the best include Slippery Karst
and Dwarven Mine
as well as the other expected draw lands. Since we are a deck that cares about creature types we get a decent amount of value out of Path of Ancestry
. We are running 36 lands, I tested with 35, 36 and 37 and found that 36 was the perfect number and allowed us to run efficiently and effectively.
Strengths of the Deck:
- Direct damage to the opponent’s key creatures/commanders
- A large amount of Artifact / Enchantment removal
- A decent amount of card draw
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Weak to creature hate
- Expected weaknesses of being in Gruul
- Weak to control strategies
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops in the deck. We win the game through sheer willpower and big dinosaurs. We don’t have a ton of creature buffs but we do have creatures that are pretty big naturally even without buffs, so attacking and getting through is not hard. Our typical path to victory is to ramp as much as we can and overwhelm the board with huge dinos!
Conclusion:
Itzquinth is a really fun Pauper EDH commander who adds a different and strong element to the dinosaur archetype in Pauper EDH. Dinosaurs have a lot of support which makes them a really fun creature type to build around, from pinging down creatures and casting huge Brontodons this deck is a ton of fun. I really enjoyed this deck in testing and would recommend it to anyone whether a novice or pro in the format. Thanks for reading to the end and thanks for all of your support